Sunday, January 2, 2011

Substitutes for materials

Over time I have found several substitutes for materials we can use in scrapping, there are tons out there and I most likely do not know them all or will I ever know them all.I found some of these just because I was interested in a possible alternative but some I found out of frantically looking for a substitute when I was in the middle of a project and found that I was out of a material I thought I had, or I would run short and really wanted to complete the project then.I will post the recipes and links of where I found them along with several other tips I have found.I hope you all enjoy them, many of these works even better than the originals. ( I will list supplies needed under each link so that even though you have the link you can have a list of materials. I also suggest purchasing cheap bowls with lids so that you can keep the products for future use.I use the glad ones they work great. I also purchased a few watercolor paint palettes.

Vegetable Glycerin (I buy mine at walmart find it either in the spice aisle or with the wilton products)

Rubbing Alcohol

Restick your mats

There are several methods for this the first will be my favorite but I will list them all at least all that I have found so far so that you can use what you have on hand if need be.

First you must check if your mat is really needing to be resurfaced to make it sticky or if it just needs to be cleaned try using a small and I mean small amount of dish soap and water to clean your mat, If it is to dirty I also use my scraper from my cricut tool kit to help get the excess dust and paper off of my mat.If it is that you need to restick your mat try the methods below.

Something to remove the previous glue ( I like either goo gone or elmers glue remover)

Cleaned cricut mat

Use Mix the tack t over and water in a 50/50 mixture then paint on, it does not call to tape the sides before painting on but I do to keep my edges clean. Let dry and it says to use your hands to condition the mat this is an important step or your paper will stick to much, this however is the cheapest and best method I have found so far.

Srape mat to get it clean then use the stick away, let sit for 30 seconds, scrape the glue off it should slide off, wipe with paper towels make sure all glue is off spray again if needed, tape down the mat, spray with stick and spray, (well ventilated area) do even strokes cover the mat with the stick and spray.Let dry and remove the tape.

Many of us use baby wipes to keep our mats clean I have always used homemade wipes because they are most cost effective below is the recipe I have used forever and I love it, if you need containers ask around there is always someone who has a baby who would be willing to give away their own baby wipes containers when they are empty.They work great and can be used for a long time, and look at it this way you are keeping one plastic item out of the dump. (also baby food containers work great for storage and you can usually get them for free also)

Mix together the liquids then pour half (approximately 2 cups) into each container. Place paper towel rolls in the liquid and seal containers. Wait 5 minutes then flip the containers over to evenly distribute the solution on the paper towels. Make sure to use containers that are airtight and can hold boiling hot water.

Remove the cardboard tubes from the center of the rolls, and then use the wipes by pulling the towel from the center.

Baby soap and lotion can be changed to whichever brand you prefer.

My tip for this one is I use the dollar general brand baby products they work the same, I do use bounty paper towels and once cut in half, I fold them instead of leaving them in the roll, I found that if you leave them rolled up they tend to bunch up on each other sometimes making it hard to remove them from the container.